Metafiction as the Expression of Crisis: The Case of Luigi Pirandello and Miguel de Unamuno.

This article examines metafiction as a literary expression of crisis through the works of Italian author Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) and Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936), highlighting their metafictional experiments during the early twentieth century. It argues that both authors used metafiction to explore challenges to identity, authority, and national crises amid social and political upheavals in Italy and Spain, respectively. Pirandello’s “Character Trilogy” of short stories anticipates his play *Six Characters in Search of an Author* by destabilizing traditional author-character hierarchies, while Unamuno’s novels and plays, such as *Niebla* and *Cómo se hace una novela*, similarly interrogate free will, authorship, and fictional agency against the backdrop of Spain’s political turmoil. The article advocates for greater inclusion of Pirandello and Unamuno in transnational metafiction studies to broaden understandings of modernist literature beyond dominant anglophone and geographic focuses.